Welcome to Fourteen Holy Helpers!
Bazaar 2024
The the Sodality of Our Lady extends a warm welcome to you, your family, friends, relatives, and neighbors to its 63rd Christmas Bazaar. It will be held on Sunday, November 10th from 12:30-4:30 PM in Monsignor Ebner Parish Hall. Highlights include:
- Christmas Bazaar Prize Raffle
- Theme Tray Raffle (online pre-sale special are available at … Bazaar Online Sales LINK)
- Visit by Santa from 12:30-2:00 PM.
- Weidner’s BBQ chicken dinners of a half chicken, coleslaw, buttered potatoes, beverage, and dessert are back again! Dinners are $15 each or $55 for a family of four. We’ve SOLD OUT the last several years, so, pre-purchase the dinners prior to the Bazaar from the rectory or online at … Bazaar Online Sales LINK. Electronic ticket(s) will be emailed for online orders once payment has been received.
For those special supporters of our Bazaar we have Angel Sponsorships available again this year. For only a $25 donation we’ll create and post a sign indicating your special message of support. Information on sponsorships are at … Bazaar Online Sales LINK
Mark it on your calendar. We hope to see you at the Bazaar!
Life in the Eucharist
In the Eucharist, we find unity. In the Eucharist, we find nourishment. In the Eucharist we find JESUS!
Let us embark on this journey together, as a Family of Parishes, and rediscover the power of Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist and allow Him to transform us as His living Church. Please call the Rectory to register or fill out a form at Church and drop it in the collection.
This retreat runs Wednesday evenings from 6:30pm-8:30pm. Each retreat session will be held at a different church in the family; the themes vary each night. It is best to attend all sessions, but please come to as many as you can.
Topic & Location:
10/16 – The Eucharist as Nourishment at Queen of Heaven
10/23 – The Eucharist as Reconciliation at St. John XXIII
10/30 – The Eucharist as Transformation at St. John Vianney
11/06 – The Eucharist as Abiding at St. Gabriel
11/13 – The Eucharist as Mission at Fourteen Holy Helpers
Fr. Sam Giangreco
Fr. Sam Giangreco has recently joined our Family #7 Parish Family. Fr. Sam is residing in our Rectory at 14 Holy Helpers. He will be supporting all of the parishes in the family but will be focusing on St. Gabriel’s during this period of Fr. Walter’s absence. We are expecting that Fr. Sam will also be celebrating a couple of Masses each week at 14 Holy Helpers but a rotation schedule for family priests has not yet been finalized.
When you see Fr. Sam around our campus please extend a special welcome to him.
Diocesan Rightsizing and Reshaping Process
The Diocese has released their final decisions in regard to the merging and closing of parishes resulting from the Rightsizing and Reshaping process. For our Family #7 the decisions are:
- 14 Holy Helpers … merge with Queen of Heaven but remain open as a secondary worship site
- St. John XXIII … merge with Queen of Heaven and close the parish with the entire site being put up for sale
- St. John Vianney … merge with Queen of Heaven and close the parish and school at the end of the 2024-25 school year with the entire site being put up for sale. The church will function as a secondary worship site until the end of the 2024-25 school year.
- Queen of Heaven … remain open as an independent parish
- St. Gabriel’s … remain open as an independent parish
The list of closings and mergers for all families is available at … Renewal Timeline and Mergers-Closings LINK.
Essentially, through the mergers the Diocese is creating a single parish and school in West Seneca at Queen of Heaven with two sites available for worship … Queen of Heaven and 14 Holy Helpers. In the press conference announcing the decisions, Fr. Bryan Zielenieski, Vicar for Renewal in the Diocese, described a secondary worship site as a church where the traditional functions like Masses, the sacraments, and services can be celebrated but it has become part of the parish it is joining …it is no longer an independent parish. The other facilities of the parish being merged like school buildings, parish halls, rectories, convents and cemeteries become part of the new parish. Mass schedules and the use of facilities will be determined by the family of parishes. Some answers to these questions are provided in the following Renewal document … Renewal Merger FAQs LINK.
The Diocese is met with the priests on Tuesday, September 17 to provide them with processes for merging and closing parishes, Canonical procedures which need to be followed, timelines which need to be set, etc. More details will be available afterward. The documents containing these processes are available at the Diocesan Renewal website … Diocesan Renewal Document Resources LINK.
St. Mary’s Shrine
On Sunday, August 25 early in the morning, the box used to collect the candle money given by people lighting votive candles in St. Mary’s Shrine was robbed. This glass enclosed shrine is located outside the front of the church facing Union Rd. Damage to the collection box during the robbery was extensive. The West Seneca Police have been contacted and are investigating.
While we come up with a replacement for the collection box, we are asking that you either drop your candle money in the mail slot to the right of the Rectory front door, or drop it in the weekly collection basket in an envelope marked “Candle Money”, or mail it in to the Rectory.
Confirmation 2024-25
If you know of someone who is either in 11th grade in public school and has completed 10th grade Faith Formation during the 2023-2024 school year or is presently in 11th grade in a Catholic school program, please call the Faith
Formation Office at 716-674-2374 to notify us of this. The program will be starting shortly. The registration form is available at … Confirmation Registration LINK.
Support those who Support Us
We have been blessed to enjoy the support of our local business community over the past year. They have provided our parish, and the events and services we produce, with money, products, and services donations. Through their generous donations we have been able to generate needed revenue to work toward our mission and serve the local community.
Due to the recent coronavirus health crisis, many businesses have been forced to either temporarily close or operate in a restricted environment. Even those not as directly impacted have had to operate in a new world of social distancing, working environment cleansings, or managing a remote work force. Our supporting businesses stood up to help 14 Holy Helpers when we called … Businesses that Support 14 Holy Helpers LINK. Please consider supporting them with your patronage when you are in need of the goods or services that they provide to the community. Thank them and let them know that 14 Holy Helpers appreciates their support.
On-Line Giving
On-line giving to 14 Holy Helpers is processed through a program managed by Vanco Payment Solutions. Vanco is a large on-line payment processor for faith based organizations and is used by a number of parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo. As a PCI Level 1 compliant service provider they are dedicated to protecting the security and privacy of our donors.
Making your payments on-line is easy. You can access our on-line system by clicking the blue Offering button found in the right hand column of our Home Page (see button below). You have the option to set up a donor profile to save your information for multiple donations … or make a one time donation without setting up a profile. Donations can be made via credit card or ACH withdrawal from a checking or savings account.
The system is available now. Call the Parish Business Administrator, Kate Wypij, at the Rectory (716) 674-2374 with any questions.
Parish Pictorials
We have started to collect the history of our parish life through photographs. If you have any pictures that you would like to share with us please contact our Webteam. Our current collection can be seen at the following link … 14 HH Pictorial.
Parish E-Mail List Sign up for the Parish Email List. Through our emails you’ll get information and reminders about parish news and life delivered right to your in-box. You can subscribe at the following link … Subscribe
